In August 1977 The Misfits released their debut single "Cough/Cool" on Blank Records, a label operated by the band's lead vocalist Glenn Danzig. Several months later Mercury Records issued a Pere Ubu record on their own Blank Records imprint, unaware that Danzig held a trademark on the name. The parties came to a settlement, with Danzig accepting thirty hours of studio time for his band in exchange for the rights to the Blank Records name. In January and February 1978 the Misfits recorded seventeen songs at C.I. Recordings in New York City with engineer and producer Dave Achelis. Due to time constraints, the band recorded the songs live in the studio with only a few takes and very few overdubs. Ultimately fourteen of the seventeen tracks produced during the sessions were assembled for the Misfits' anticipated debut album, to be titled Static Age. However, the band were unable to find a record label interested in releasing the album. Instead, the Misfits released four of the new tracks ("Bullet", "We Are 138", "Attitude", and "Hollywood Babylon") as the "Bullet" single in June 1978 on Danzig's newly created label Plan 9 Records (the same four tracks, along with a remixed version of "Last Caress", were reissued on the Beware EP in January 1980). Not until 1996 did the complete original Static Age album see the light of day for the first time, eighteen years after the songs were recorded.